First thing to mention is that I wrote this for new users because it accomplishes a task and provides a list of basic Linux commands. However, if you feel that the commands below will harm your system in any way, then you should ask or get advice from another before committing these actions.

One of the first things that you will notice after installing LMDE is that Firefox (Your web browser) and Thunderbird (Your Email Client) are outdated. Here is how to upgrade them to their current verison.

NOTE: Most solutions on this site involve adjusting your sources list so the upgrade and updates come automatically. This is not one of those tutorials.

Also NOTE: Many people suggest simply switching to other browsers (like Ice Weasel or Chromium) and other email clients (like Ice Dove and Evolution). Personally, I have nothing against any of those other products and even like them. However, this is not one of those tutorials.

Step 2:Download firefox or thunderbird whichever you are working on upgrading. There should be a prompt after selecting download to choose Archive Manager or Save File. Choose Save File.It should be downloading to your ~/Downloads directory.

Step 3:Change your directory to your Downloads directory by typing:cd Downloads (if your are in your Home directory... If you are not in your Home directory type cd ~/Downloads.)Open an terminal and type the command: sudo mv firefox-8.0.tar.bz2 /opt(sudo mv thunderbird-8.0.tar.bz2 /opt if you are doing the Thunderbird upgrade.)

Or if you if you feel the need to be different, you can go the the /opt directory first by typing:cd /opt

NOTE: A lot of people use the .old extension. However, I like to use the current date, so I remember when I committed my actions. For example, I would use the command:sudo mv firefox firefox.11202011(sudo mv thunderbird thunderbird.11202011 if you are doing the Thunderbird upgrade.)

Step 6:Unpack firefox-8.0.tar.bz2 by typing the command:sudo tar -xjf firefox-8.0.tar.bz2(sudo tar -xjf thunderbird-8.0.tar.bz2 if you are doing the Thunderbird upgrade.)

Step 7:Verify that you have a new firefox or thunderbird directory (once again depending on which one you are working on...) by typing the command:ls

Step 8:Test your browser or email client by opening it up and browsing to a web page or sending a test mail.

Step 9:Remove the tar package by typing:sudo rm firefox-8.0.tar.bz2(sudo rm thunderbird-8.0.tar.bz2 if your are working on thunderbird).

To upgrade Thunderbird, setup your account first and verify that you can send and receive emails, then repeat steps 1 through 9 except change the commands with the Thunderbird package instead (It should be something like thunderbird-8.0.tar.bz2, the directory should be /opt/thunderbird and the website should be http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/download.).

Actually, that second question is a very good one. If you update to Firefox 11 now and the repository moves from -e.g.- 9 to 10, the 10 from the repository will happily overwrite your 11 because the package manager has no idea of what you did manually.

The method is still safe if you remove the repository version first, using Synaptic or apt-get/aptitude. Alternatively, you could update the version number in /var/lib/dpkg/status.

Thanks to this post, I successfully got to make this process rather automatic.

Although this is just a work in progress, it works (more or less) out of the box. I am sharing it here just in case someone finds it useful and want to share some thoughts on what should be improved. Steps with an asterisk are already known to be very

Now, to the steps:1.- Create a folder (in your /home directory, for instance). Mine is called mozupdt.

2.- Create a text file named mozillaproductversion, This should only have the following text on it (change it to your current versions):

firefox-9.0.1thunderbird-9.0.1

3.- Chmod this file in order to make it only rw by YOUR user (maybe your group as well).

4.- Create a script called, say, mozupdt.sh. Copy and paste the following code on it:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#!/bin/bash## a program to check and update firefox and thunderbird in debian

Includes steps to make Firefox default web browser using the Debian alternatives system, and allowing Firefox to autoupdate when Mozilla releases new versions without having to be root.

Personally I am lazy, all I do is download, extract, create a firefox.desktop file and copy it to /use/share/applications so it shows on the KDE menu. Then add it to the alternatives system and set Firefox as my default browser. No need to mess with /opt , root or with moving files around other than the firefox.desktop file. Two minutes and I have a working Firefox that will update itself whenever a new release comes out. Same for Thunderbird.

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open[Desktop Entry]Categories=Network;WebBrowser;Comment[en_US]=Browse the World Wide WebComment=Browse the World Wide WebEncoding=UTF-8Exec=/home/craig/Downloads/firefox/firefox '%u'GenericName[en_US]=FirefoxGenericName=FirefoxIcon=/home/craig/Downloads/firefox/icons/mozicon128.pngMimeType=text/html;image/png;image/jpeg;image/gif;application/xml;application/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;Name[en_US]=firefoxName=firefoxPath=StartupNotify=trueStartupWMClass=Firefox-binTerminal=falseTerminalOptions=Type=ApplicationX-DBUS-ServiceName=X-DBUS-StartupType=X-GNOME-FullName=FirefoxX-KDE-SubstituteUID=falseX-KDE-Username=FirefoxX-MultipleArgs=false

3) Go to "Help -> About Firefox" or "Help -> About Thunderbird" and update it just like in windows.

I don't know if it will cause some trouble when the packages in the repos are updated, but I think I still have enough time until the next UP (and there is always the choice to reinstall ).

Thanks! That worked for me after I chmod:ed write permissions to /opt/firefox directory. Then browser notified me about new version and everything worked as in windows. I also opened synaptic and locked my firefox version (MENU: Package > Lock version). That way I prevented future updates for Firefox package from linux mint repositories. Now I always have latest and greatest version of FF.